PM to witness Isro satellite launch in Sriharikota

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is set to launch five foreign satellites belonging to four countries from Sriharikota on Monday in an event which will be witnessed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The launch that was initially slated for 09.49am was delayed by three minutes because of the possibility of space debris coming in the way of the rocket. Along with French payload SPOT 7, there will be four co-passenger satellites AISAT from DLR Germany, NLS7.1 & NLS7.2 from UTIAS/SFL Canada and VELOX-1 from NTU, Singapore.

The PM will witness the launch of PSLV-C23 from the Mission Control Centre at Sriharikota. You can watch it live http://t.co/2cZ3nTAyIS

So far, Isro has launched 35 satellites of foreign countries. The first foreign satellite launched in 1999 was that of Germany. Before Monday’s launch, India had launched foreign satellites of Canada, Austria, Denmark and the UK in 2013.

Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan told HT that this would be the first fully commercial launch of foreign satellites after September 2012. “In between we had a launch in February 2013 but that was not fully commercial.”

Live telecast by Doordarshan and webcast of launch will start from 9.15am.